The Cue List
The cue list is the heart of CueStudio 2. Each row is one cue.
#Columns
- Number: an editable label. Numbers don't have to be integers or sequential.
- Type icon: colour-coded for the cue type.
- Name: edit inline by double-clicking.
- File: the media file, target cue number, or network address.
- Length: the cue's duration (or ∞ for a held image / text / camera cue).
- Trigger / Trig Time: how the NEXT cue fires (GO, Follow, Immediate, Time) and, for a Time trigger, its pre-wait.
- Fade In / Fade Out: ramp times at the start and end of the cue.
- Post Time: a delay AFTER this cue finishes before the next cue auto-follows.
- Start: the media in-point.
- Pre-Roll: a delay AFTER this cue is triggered before it actually starts.
- Notes: free text.
Double-click any timing cell to edit it; press Tab to move across Trig Time → Fade In → Fade Out → Post Time. Time fields accept plain seconds or M:SS; type 3:24 to trigger a cue after a long video. Trig Times of a minute or more display as M:SS in the list.
See "Firing & Transport" for how Post Time and Pre-Roll behave, with examples.
#Selecting and editing
- Click to select; ⇧-click for a range; ⌘-click to toggle individuals.
- ⇧↑ / ⇧↓ extends the selection one row at a time from the anchor.
- Double-click the name or number field to edit it.
- The inspector panel below edits everything about the selected cue.
- With several cues selected, right-click offers Disable N Cues / Enable N Cues, Fire Selected, Delete N Cues, and, when the selection holds two or more audio cues, Set Trim for N Audio Cues… to apply the same in/out points to all of them.
#Arming the playhead
The armed cue is the next one GO will fire. Move it with ↑/↓ arrow keys, or click any cue to select and arm it. The GOTO keypad (slide-in at the right edge of the list) lets you type a cue number and jump straight to it.
#Reordering and nesting
- Drag rows to reorder them.
- Drag a cue onto a Group cue to nest it as a subcue.
- ⌥↑ / ⌥↓ moves the selected cue(s) up or down one row.
- Drop media files from Finder to create cues; drop a FOLDER to create a Group named after it containing one cue per media file inside.
#Control cue targets
Right-click a Start, Load, Stop, Fade, Devamp, or Arm/Disarm cue and choose Show Target to jump straight to the cue it points at, even when the target lives on another cue list (the menu item names that list, and choosing it switches tabs).
- Start and Load targets are pinned to the cue list you pick them from, so the same cue number on two lists is never confused: cue 7 picked from List 10 always means cue 7 on List 10.
- A Start or Load cue that targets itself would fire in a loop, so it is skipped with an alert at fire time and shows a ⚠ badge in the list.
- Deleting a target's list (or the target itself) also shows a ⚠ badge, and the Status window's Warnings tab lists every broken target across the show.
#Colours and disabling
- Assign a tint colour in the Extras tab to organise the list visually.
- A disabled cue (via Arm/Disarm or right-click ▸ Disable) is shown at reduced opacity. It skips when reached in a chain but stays in the list.
#Operator notes
Every cue has a NOTES field in the Extras tab: a rich-text editor with live spell checking (misspelled words get a red underline; right-click for suggestions, or use the right-click ▸ Spelling and Grammar menu to turn on autocorrection).
- Format text with the toolbar beside the NOTES title: Bold, Italic, Underline, text size, text colour, and an eraser that clears formatting.
- ⌘B / ⌘I / ⌘U work while typing, and ⌘F opens find.
- Click Done, press Escape, or click anywhere outside to finish editing and restore Space = GO. Formatting is saved in the show file. Other places that show notes (cue sheet export, Presenter View, the web remote) display the plain text.
#Filtering
Click the magnifying-glass button in the cue-list toolbar to open the filter pop-out. Type free text to search by name, number, or file, or use the Type · Color · Status menu to show only a specific cue type, a specific colour, or cues that are currently playing. When any filter is active, a strip under the toolbar shows the active criteria as chips you can clear individually, plus a match count. Press Done, Escape, or click outside to close the pop-out, keeping the search field out of the main list so it never traps keyboard focus while a cue is running.
#Cue numbers
Double-click a cue's number to edit it in place. Editing one cue's number never renumbers anything else: only ⇧⌘R (below) and structural edits like inserting or reordering mint numbers for you. Every cue must have a number: a blank one can't be addressed by a numbered trigger, a control cue's target, OSC, or AppleScript, so a blank entry is rejected and the previous number is kept.
To open the full Edit Cue window instead, double-click the cue's TYPE cell (or use the row's right-click menu).
#Renumbering
Use ⇧⌘R to renumber all cues on the active list in sequence: top-level cues become 1, 2, 3… and subcues become 2.1, 2.2… A dialog lets you set the start number and step size (e.g. 1, 2, 3 or 10, 20, 30). Other cue lists are untouched, and the renumber is undoable.
#Multiple cue lists
A show can hold several cue lists, shown as tabs above the table. Useful for acts, scenes, or utility cues. Click + in the tab bar to add a list; drag tabs to reorder. Right-click a tab for Rename, Duplicate List, and Delete. With more than two lists a jump menu sits at the right end of the tab strip: pick any list and the strip scrolls it into view. Right-click a Group cue for Copy to New Cue List, which copies the group and its contents into a fresh list. The web remote and session sync both follow the active list.